When you’re a baseball GM and the owner of your team is a lame duck, you aren’t exactly walking without a limp, yourself. In fact, no matter where you look in your organization, it’s everywhere a duck-duck. For now, Josh Byrnes continues to move about without assistance.

But a person with a whole lot of cash will buy out at least John Moores’ 51 percent and take control of the Padres soon enough. And if you’re General Manager Byrnes, an employee, a passenger, you can’t crawl under your desk and hide like George Costanza. For certain, it won’t be long before the carpets in the Padres office are going to be wove out of eggshells.

Owners like to stamp their personalities and philosophies on company letterhead, and that’s how it should be. That’s why they’re bosses. Their money, they’re right. Sports teams, by their very nature, bring about severe magnification. New owners — most of them, anyway — like to improve things and can’t stand losing.

The Padres lose. They lose all the time. They stink. They were all but out of the National League West race by mid-April. Byrnes cannot be responsible for every player on the roster, but he’s in charge of it. And Bud Black, despite being very capable, manages it.

We went through this with the Chargers in January, when it appeared certain head coach Norv Turner would be canned, and possibly GM A.J. Smith (although his departure was doubtful). Both of them kept their jobs, which was the right thing to do, in that club President Dean Spanos quite possibly could have done worse.

But Spanos is a boss deeply involved in the organization, and the Chargers weren’t changing flags. If the Spanos family sold the club four months ago, think things might have been different?

I’m not saying anyone in Padreville (who isn’t playing) should be released. I’m just reading you the first chapter from “The Way of the World in Sports.” You lose, you fail, and those running the day-to-day business are the first to get the front end of a Ferragamo loafer.

Byrnes knows the drill. Jeff Moorad hired him and Moorad has had his fastball removed. It’s hard to imagine any new owner will arrive, look around and say: “You guys are doing great work. A last-place team with no hitting, no defense, no stars and an iffy future is just what I’m looking for.” The new boss quickly may play custodian and get out the broom.

“I honestly don’t think the (ownership) situation has affected us one bit,” Byrnes says. “We have access to a few things. We’ve done one small trade and we were kicking around another that would have added to our payroll. That trade isn’t going to happen now, but adding to our payroll was accepted. The other team just didn’t want to do it.

“Our lousy start was independent of what was going on with ownership. It’s normal. We sign guys to contracts. Who knows? We might trade guys to reduce payroll. It’s what happens when you’re not doing well.”